making culinary and travel passions an everyday reality

Menu

The Elusive Thin Crust Pizza

If I traveled to Italy to learn how to become a pizzaiolo, I likely could have finished this post sooner. But since my goal was to sort through different recipes and flours, it took 6 months to figure out what worked for a thin crust pizza at home.

Wanting an option if short on time, I tried the pre-made pizza dough at Fairway and Trader Joe’s. The dough wasn’t exactly thin enough to give me the crispness I wanted, and it took at least an hour to reach room temperature so that it could be stretched – about the time it takes to make dough. I wasn’t loving the texture or the flavor either. So crossed those of the list.

Armed with a Kitchen Aid dough hook, pizza stone, pizza peel and fancy cutter, I had everything but a good recipe for the thin-crust I craved. After some research, it seemed that 00 Flour would be my savior. But shockingly, it’s not easy to find – even in NYC where I can usually find almost any ingredient. After the NY Times magazine article on pizza-making, even the one store I expected to have it, Eataly, was out of stock. (I missed the last bag while having drinks with friends upstairs at the Birreria!) Not wanting to go home empty-handed, I decided to buy another type of flour from Italy – supposedly for La Pizza e Il Pane. I even discussed it with the bread and pasta counters at Eataly. Since they couldn’t help me discern the difference between this one and the 00 type, it seemed like a good starting point.

I tried it using 3 cups of flour, a package of yeast and a little olive oil.

The dough didn’t rise much, but it was easy to work with and stretched well enough.

I decided to grill it–so I had to transfer this

onto the pizza stone- and I even got the pizza off the peel without a giant mess!

But though it looked nice, the bottom burned because the dough didn’t cook quickly. Or maybe I shouldn’t have used the stone.

I had enough for a second pie, so I tried again in the oven.Much better, but I didn’t like the consistency of the dough. Better for bread.

So I went back to Eataly months later– and I found the 00 flour! What a difference! I used Tyler Florence’s recipe. The dough rose nicely

and was thin, easily moved from peel to stone.

But mainly, it was crispy.

My “secret” to a perfect crust is to brush olive oil on it for a nice golden color.

I also experimented with sauce then cheese (a tomato pie) and cheese before sauce (traditional). Both work well.

With the little effort it takes to make the dough (once you locate the flour), this is fun on a weeknight or weekend. It’s great for solo diners, couples and kids too. And it’s perfect for a snow day – which we seem to have far too many of this winter.